P is for Play

J has realized that mommy isn't very mobile but that doesn't stop him from requesting that I play with him regularly. Usually, when we're in his room, he will pat the floor beside him, look up at me in the rocker, and say "Play!" Sometimes, when he's feeling really emphatic, he will say "Play Me!" What he wants, of course, is for me to get down on the floor with him and play, usually with the train tracks but lately with the foam alphabet he has in his toy box. Playing trains doesn't take very long: I set up the wooden track in some vaguely circular configuration, he drives his little engines and cars around the track until he either sits or kneels on it, disrupting progress entirely, and he gets bored. We are still a little young to understand this kind of cause and effect.

Playing with the letters is more involved. J wants to identify them all and he will tell me the ones he knows but then wants me to supply the names for all the rest, again and again. So far, he can identify A, E, O, T, and Y. Every once in a while he remembers M and I, and I think he's close to getting X and J.

He's also getting into blocks, finally, after a long time trying to get him interested in them. I guess we were always ahead of his developmental curve. Now, he can't wait to build towers (and, more importantly, knock them down). Before? What are these square things you keep putting in front of me, weirdos? Glad we finally got to the same place. Too bad I can't stay down there with him right now!